what the fiat?

Personally, I think that Obama has every right to push his weight around with GM right now. I mean, we elected him, GM is now in a position where the federal government is their biggest shareholder, so by the transitive property the man the taxpayers have chosen as their representative is now the de facto chief executive of GM, right? We put Obama in charge of our money, and GM is now using our money to try and survive.

I also think that the Fiat move is one of the first truly globalized solutions proposed by this government to bring GM out of its dependence on the American federal dollar and into the world of actual free-market competition.

GM has always been exceptional, always the American trust fund baby, allowed to clutter the highways and driveways of America with cheap, ugly, gas-hungry cars that nobody really wants. It has been bailed out despite its proclivity toward creating a product that is far inferior to that of nearly every single one of its competitors (except Kia. Kia is still crap).

It's about time GM were forced to play well with others and collaborate with the innovators abroad. You know, people in Europe for whom the troublesome issues of workers' rights, unemployment and expensive fuel have been a reality for decades. Free market folks like my dad always balk when a federal body starts asserting itself over a business, but the truth about GM is that it has been entangled with the federal government and the American economy for so long that it never has been, and never truly will be, a completely private organization. America owns GM now. We need to cut off its allowance, force it to go to work, and force it, at LONG last, to learn from its numerous mistakes.

I got the white one.

I call him Felix.

2006 Scion tC, or what I dearly hope to park in front of my apartment this weekend.

I test drove the tC last night, and in the words of many a smitten young woman, I think it may be the one.

The particular year I drove was an 06, a slightly edgier, more angular-looking build than the newer 08s and 09s. Which is to say, a better-looking build than the new models, which, I think, edge too close to a sort of space-age bubbleness I'm not too thrilled with. Photos don't really do the Scion much justice. Though much has been made of the supposedly substandard paint Scion used in the first two years of the Scion brand, the graphite color of this car was subtly beautiful, playing up both the curves and angles of the design to great effect.

But enough about the outside.

Though reviews have slammed Scion for their stripped-down interiors and basic interior materials, I have to say that I was impressed with the fit and finish of the car's living space. Tough ballistic nylon-like textile covers the seats, and the dash is covered in some kind of space age polymer resembling a vinyl record. Groovy. My sister couldn't keep her hands off the myriad buttons and dials on the center, "waterfall console," which opens and closes to neatly conceal the frankly, robotic-looking stereo and climate controls.

Scion is defined as an heir, an offshoot to a great legacy. And as soon as the key is turned on the Scion ignition, you get why. This is Toyota's sexy, fun, slightly kinky daughter. While used Accords, Civics, and Corollas in this price range have left me decidedly cold with their 1.8s, 1.7s and such other sad displacement figures, the Scion's feisty 2.4 is exactly what I want, where I want it. Roaring to go under the skin of a lightweight, but well balanced vehicle.

I had just gotten used to the very squishy clutch and very small gearbox of the Saab after repairing the clutch cable this December, so the tight, responsive gears of the Scion took a lot of getting used to (though not as much as the fact that the ignition is actually up by the steering wheel, not on the center console). The gear shift asks for only the smallest of motions to change gears. My sole complaint about this is the fact that the tC really does feel like it wants a 6th gear at highway speeds. It feels like you're asking a lot of it at around 65/70.

We took the tC for a ride on roads that I am almost frighteningly familiar with- roads around Boulder that I spent my teenage years driving. I'd joyrided these curves with my Volvo (which actually cornered better than one might imagine) my sister's 90 Prelude, and, most exciting, my father's 1996 Nissan Maxima (the v6). And the tC should have been the best time I'd ever had on those roads, had I not been trapped behind a noisy, smelly Suburban taking curves at about six miles an hour. But the reason I'll probably buy this car, the reason I fell so in love with it last night, is that I could tell this car wanted to take those curves just as fast as I did.